Maxxzandra Ford, Florida Mom, Gives Birth To 14.1 Pound Baby

Florida Mom Delivers 14-Pound Baby

Maxxzandra Ford is a nurse and the mother of two children, so she knows a thing or two about pregnancy. But last week, she gave birth to her third child -- a 14.1 pound baby boy -- and says she had no idea she was pregnant until late in the third trimester.

"No nausea. No vomiting," Ford told Fox 13. "I didn't gain any weight. I was working."

When the weight gain eventually did occur, the 26-year-old went to her doctor and learned she was already 35 weeks along.

What may be even more remarkable is the fact that little Avery's Jan. 29 birth was via a natural delivery.

"I was cussing up a storm," Ford told WFLA. "When I felt his head come out, I knew he was bigger than 10 pounds."

When the medical staff realized how big the baby was, they told her to stop pushing.

“Before I knew it, he was already coming out,” Ford told WFTS, the local ABC affiliate. “It was too late to turn back.”

While Ford knew the baby was big, even she was stunned when she was told how much little Avery weighed.

“What? My baby weighed what?” Ford said, according to the Washington Post. ”They were like, ‘Your baby is like adorably huge.’”

Avery is the biggest baby ever born at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital in Tampa and has been in neonatal intensive care since his birth.

They can have physical issues as they are coming out," Dr. Jenelle Ferry, a neonatologist at the hospital, told The Tampa Tribune. “Some experience respiratory distress, where they have trouble breathing. Other babies have hypoglycemia, where they have low sugar levels, and some have trouble feeding.’’

The hospital said Avery is doing well and could go home soon to join his 1-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister.

A typical American baby weighs 7.5 pounds, according to What to Expect, making Avery nearly twice the size of the average newborn. But he's not even close to the biggest baby ever. An Italian baby born in 1955 weighed 22.5 pounds, according to Guinness World Records.

Before You Go

1
They Can Tell Good From Evil
Using puppets that act out good and bad behaviors, Yale's Baby Lab has been studying infant ethics for decades.

In one experiment, a cat puppet was struggling to open a box when a bunny puppet in a green t-shirt came along and helped him. The puppet masters then re-did the scenario with a bunny puppet in an orange t-shirt who cruelly slammed the box shut and ran away.

The lab's studies revealed that over 80 percent of babies under 24 months showed a preference for the puppet that demonstrates good behavior -- the helpful bunny in the green shirt. With 3-month-olds, the number increased to 87%.
2
They Have A Sense Of Self-Control
A 2014 study published in the journal Cognitive Development looked at 150 15-month-olds. The babies watched an adult demonstrate how to use several noise-making toys. Then, a second adult entered the room and angrily scolded the first for making so much noise.

After the demonstration, the babies were welcome to play with the toys, but for half of them, the angry second adult left the room or turned away, while the latter half remained under that adult's gaze.

Babies in the former group did not hesitate to start playing with the toys, but the ones in the second group generally waited a little bit and then played with the toys differently than they'd seen in the demonstration. This indicated that they were trying to adjust their actions to avoid the anger of the second adult -- therefore, they are able to resist their impulses and show self-control.
3
Foreign Languages Sound … Well, Foreign To Them
Mere hours after their birth, babies can sense the difference between sounds in their native language and a foreign one.

Researchers in Sweden and Washington state studied 40 newborns wearing pacifiers that were wired to a computer. When the babies heard sounds from foreign languages, they sucked the pacifiers for much longer than when they heard their native tongue -- this indicates that they could differentiate between the two.

According to researcher Patricia Kuhl, "The vowel sounds in [the mother's] speech are the loudest units and the fetus locks onto them."
4
They’re Tuned In To Each Other’s Emotions
By the time they reach 5 months, babies are able to sense each other's feelings.

In a BYU 2013 study, 20 5-month-old babies and 20 3.5-month-old babies sat in front of two monitors, which showed a video of a smiling baby and a video of a frowning baby. Then the scientists played two audio recordings: one of happy baby and one of a sad baby.

Upon hearing the the sounds of the happy baby, the 5-month-olds looked at the monitor with the smiling baby, and when they heard the sad baby audio, they turned to the frowning baby video. The 3.5-month old babies were less successful in matching these sounds and images.
5
Their Ears Register More Words From Mom Than Dad
A recent study published in Pediatrics found that infants react more to words from moms than from dads. All 33 babies in the study wore sound-recording vests which revealed that they heard three times more words from moms than from dads.

A researcher from the study, Dr. Betty Vohr, told Time that "a possible explanation is that the pitch of mother’s voice or its proximity is more stimulating for babies."
6
They Have The Ability To Learn Sign Language
Although babies generally don't start speaking their first few words until 12 months old and still have a limited vocabulary by age 2, they have the ability to develop an impressive mastery of sign language from the age of 6 months.

After noticing that the children of his deaf friends were communicating with their families with sign language from a very early age, Dr. Joseph Garcia founded the "Sign With Your Baby" program in which instructors teach parents and babies American Sign Language.
7
And, They Can Read Lips
A 2012 study showed that babies read people's lips when they're learning to talk.

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University observed almost 180 babies at ages 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months and studied their behavior when they saw videos of adults speaking. The experiment showed that when babies are about 6 months old, they stop looking into adults’ eyes and start focusing on their lips to learn how to make sounds.

So next time you’re in the presence of a lip-reading baby, you might want to be a little more mindful about what you say.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE